MIRACLE ON THE CORNFIELD

Cockpit recording reveals how the Russian Sully told air traffic control to buzz off after he saved 233 passengers by heroically landing stricken passenger jet in a cornfield

By Will Stewart, Alisha Buaya and Danyal Hussain

Daily Mail
August 17, 2019

The dramatic transcript of hero Airbus captain Damir Yusupov's take off and crash landing in a cornfield reveals he told off air traffic control to stop their questions as they evacuated passengers off the aircraft.

The script records the moment the plane came down in a bellyflop landing without engine power or wheels lowered.

It also shows how the pilot pleaded with air traffic control to stop asking him questions over the crash, demanding: 'Do not disturb us, evacuation of passengers is in progress.'

The transcript for the Ural Airlines flight also highlights how the captain was twice warned there were birds near the runway - a known hazard at Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow.

This came as he was fearful the packed tourist plane could burst into flames, although in the event there was no fire.

Both engines had stopped working a few seconds into the flight after seagulls flew into the jets.

Yusupov, 41, and his co-pilot Georgy Murzin, 23, are to be awarded the Kremlin's top honour - the Hero of Russia medal - by Vladimir Putin for safely gliding the plane into a field and cushioning the landing with a crop of corn, saving the lives of all 233 on board.

At 06.01 on Thursday air traffic control (ATC) said before he taxied from the stand: 'Visibility is 7 km, air temperature 16 C, birds flying here and there…'

Just before takeoff at 06.12, he was told: 'Runway 12, take off is allowed, birds flying here and there.'

A mere two minutes later after takeoff at 06.14 Yusupov is heard signalling he has an emergency on board his plane identified by the code SZhR178 but not yet a catastrophe.

Using the standard international radiotelephony message, he reported: 'PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN. SZhR 178. One engine failure.'

Air traffic control ask him what he would do: 'ATC: SZhR 178, your decision?

Pilot: Please allow to turn back. Altitude…

ATC: Allow to turn back.

Pilot: Turning back….

But having got permission to 'turn back' for an emergency landing, the second engine failed and Yusupov then acted without referring to air traffic control - deciding to land the powerless plane in the nearest cornfield.

There is a gap in communications as he brings the plane safely in to land.

Only 40 seconds later the pilot is heard saying: 'Asking for ambulance and rescue team.'

ATC reply: 'What is your altitude and how many passengers on board?'

Yusupov tells him they have already landed - which at first the controller, nicknamed Gordy - cannot believe.

The air traffic controller continues to asks the pilot to questions and to repeat himself during that exchange.

It is then Yusupov tells air traffic control: 'do not disturb us, evacuation of passengers is in progress.'

Astonishingly quickly, according to the transcript obtained by online media outlet BAZA which has links to the Russian secret services, the passengers left the aircraft using emergency chutes.

At 06.19 - just seven minutes after takeoff - ATC demands: 'SZhR178, report the situation.'

Yusupov replies: 'All passengers have been evacuated.

ATC: Injured, dead? Say please.

Pilot: Nobody dead, injured later.

ATC: understand, later….

ATC: SZhR178, give us the number of casualties.

Pilot: no casualties.

In fact some passengers and crew suffered injuries but nothing life-threatening.

ATC: SZhR178, got it, no casualties. All evacuated, is it correct?

Pilot: All evacuated. Did you find our location? We switched on crash position indicator.

ATC: all emergency services have been informed.

Pilot: thank you.

But there still seems a problem getting their exact location in the cornfield.

At 04.48, ATC ask: 'SZhR178, please tell us your whereabouts.'

Pilot: one minute… coordinates: 30.46.55.7' North Latitude; 38.15,7 East Longtitude.

ATC: all right, got it.'

The transcript continues with ATC ordering emergency vehicles to the site and buses to collect the marooned passengers in the cornfield.

Yusupov said later: 'I didn't feel any fear.'

He told reporters: 'I saw a cornfield ahead and hoped to make a reasonably soft landing. I tried to lower vertical speed to make the plane land as smoothly as possible and glide softly.'

On his award of the Hero of Russia medal, he said: 'It feels odd and I'm shy.'

He also apologised to passengers for failing to get them to their destination – Simferopol in Crimea.

The other crew members - flight attendants Nadezhda Vershinina, 24, Aliya Slyakaeva, 27, Yana Yagodina, 26, Dmitry Ivlitsky, 31, and Dmitry Goncharneko, 27 - will be awarded the Order of Courage.

After surviving the crash, seven passengers took the first possible Ural Airlines flight the same day to Simferopol for holidays in Crimea, it was revealed.

Another 65 were accommodated in a hotel and took an evening flight yesterday to the Black Sea province annexed by Russian from Ukraine in 2014.

But a majority the rest declined to fly and returned their tickets for which they will be reimbursed and receive added compensation.

Flight attendant Nadezhda Vershinina said that during the evacuation the crew acted according to the instructions, adding: 'We work out such situations on simulators, there were no surprises.'

Russia's Rosaviatsiya state aviation agency chief, Alexander Neradko, said the plane was fully loaded with 16 tonnes of jet fuel.

He told Russian media the crew 'made the only right decision' to immediately land the fully loaded plane with its wheels up after both of its engines malfunctioned.

He added: 'The crew has shown courage and professionalism and deserve the highest state awards. Just imagine what the consequences would be if the crew didn't make the correct decision.'

Residents close to Zhukovsky said an illegal landfill was located between the airport and the Moscow river and that seagulls gathered constantly there.

Russia was once notorious for plane accidents but its air traffic safety record has improved in recent years.

The last major accident was in May, when a Sukhoi Superjet belonging to national carrier Aeroflot crash-landed and burst into flames at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, killing 41 people.

The plane, bound for the Arctic city of Murmansk, turned around after being struck by lightning, bounced on the runway on landing and caught fire.

Elena Grishina, deputy head of natural resources watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, had previously warned that the number of seagulls here 'might lead to an aviation catastrophe'.

Respected Soviet test pilot Viktor Zabolotsky warned: 'There are a very big number of seagulls at Zhukovsky.

'Moscow River is close by and so is a dump where they feed. As a rule, the runway warms up during the day and seagulls crowd there in a flock.'

The airport is more than 700 miles from the sea 'but this was an accident waiting to happen because gulls are attracted to this dump' at Lake Glushitsa, said an expert.

EDITOR’S NOTE: My guess is, had he crash landed back at the airport, the plane would have been engulfed in flames set off by the sparks resulting from the plane sliding along the paved runway. As it is, it’s a miracle the plane didn’t catch fire in the cornfield. All in all, awesome landing by the captain.